Another little breakthrough!
I worked on this until 2am one night last week, then evaluated and made more changes the next day. I ventured way out of my comfort zone in this painting, color-wise and otherwise, but in general, I like the direction.
Ostensibly, this is a painting of flowers, but the idea of flowers is really just something to give a bit of shape to the stuff of the painting–the paint, the colors, the shapes, the interactions.
What I love about working abstractly like this is that I cannot know what my painting will look like when I finish. There’s no way I could make this painting happen except by painting it! I can make a few plans, but something in the work takes over and demands adjustments. In this case, the adjustments were major. I love all the beautiful little moments and the unexpected, unplanned color mixes that happen when I work this way.
Maybe it’s just because I tend to be so literal when I work representationally. When I begin a representational work, my aim is to make what I paint look like what I’m painting from. So I sort of know when I start what I expect my finished work to look like, and I know when I’m done.
This, on the other hand, is a journey into an unknown universe for me, and I love it! Onward and upward in 2012!
*no actual flowers were harmed in the making of this painting